Right now what matters is how many floors you go down before you attempt to politely knock on a door and enter. Whether your characters have seen it or not, they ARE being chased.

More than anything, I just wanted to clarify that there’s not another “West Wing” separate from where you guys are. You’re in the central landing between the two wings of the highrise. Tell me how many floors you want to go down before you stop and knock, and we’ll take it from there IC.

Neko, et al, just to clarify – the floor plan of the building is going to be roughly the same as the map for the next several floors down. The West Wing is the left half of the map, and the East Wing is the right half. Further down, the West floors get larger, but they’re no longer “penthouse” floors either.

I’m sure there are, so this isn’t the place to ditch them. But there ought to be some place where we can duck out of sight even for a moment and then slip out while time is frozen. I’m hoping that buys us an extra few minutes while they wait for us to emerge. We’ll need a few minutes’ lead at least to find the babies and make our getaway.

Well, I have an idea for shaking the dynamic duo: use the stopwatch to exit the room. Best not to simply vanish before their eyes, so maybe demand to inspect the washroom without them. What do you guys think?

Yeah, I’m taking that into account, and we’ve utilized your quartermaster past before to assess the value of other items with which Mugsy would have had interaction. This is a different matter entirely.

You do have a clue in the pricing of the stopwatch, at least.

Additionally, though your characters have not asked, this item is almost certainly contraband – given its portability and what it accomplishes. There is very little “good” that could be done with it in the eyes of the law, so you’re definitely paying a black market price. Your characters would all understand that.

Additionally, Mugsy knows that Mordechai has a good idea of how much capital you have to work with – given that Azog has kindly dumped the whole pile out at his feet.

Also, please don’t be locked up by fear of failure here. I’m the GM, it’s my job to make sure moving the plot forward is possible, it’s your job to attempt to move it forward. So if Mugsy’s offer isn’t acceptable, we’ll roleplay through that and it may affect some things on the periphery – but it is generally presumed that the characters will arrive at an agreeable solution.

So basically what I’m saying is that as the GM I’ve ruled that none of you guys have a clue what the legit price is. Perhaps he’s being cruel, but for whatever reason, Mordechai wants you take a stab at it. So take a stab at it, roleplay it, and we’ll see what happens! :)

Mugsy may have even seen some of the Cockroaches in action, but has never encountered one outside the military, a thought that might raise a question. As far as origin, nobody knows about the US Army’s ork breeding program or where the Cockroaches came from.People generally don’t ask those sort of questions about lessers. Cockroaches, btw, was never an official monniker. It’s just what was popularized on acount of how numerous and hard to kill they were when unleashed.

Rules lawyer on Page 6 in the PDQ# PDF says you can trigger your technique before or after the roll. I also didn’t realize that I could use the technique to roll 3 dice and take the two best rolls. Can I do the reroll thing?

So, each of you had to win a challenge to be able to move. Additionally whenever someone opens their mouth or inhales deeply there is a secondary challenge required. Jamison tied his and so didn’t suffer any ill effects except garbled speech. Azog blew his out of the water, so can sniff just fine. Now that Azog is TALKING, he needs to give me another roll. If he doesn’t succeed, nobody will understand him. And I get to kill his character or something similar. :)

Hard to communicate the fullness of a concept in-character without belaboring the point. So let me make a few references. I’m thinking much more “Machine Gun Preacher”, and much less religious militarism, or the justification of wanton violence by the misrepresentation of Scripture.

What we’re looking at here is an interesting quandary. How do the teachings of Christianity apply within the bounds of a corrupt government? While admittedly the actions of Nazi Germany were extreme in comparison to the corruption within Chicago during the 20s, I think of the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who, among other things, was involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler.

Not trying to take you guys down a conversational trail you don’t want to follow – just sharing some of my thoughts as I’ve pondered how this all plays out.

So I wanted to reflect the unpredictability of the moment and chose to roll the 3rd d6 to determine the preacher’s bonus, rather than just assign a value to it. Happened I rolled a 6 for that. :P

Azog would only have left the campaign if he had critically failed the roll and suddenly been willing to drop all his vices, all his current plans, and remain committed to the work there at the Salvation Army.

Had he failed but barely, Neko would have got the opportunity to roleplay Azog having said experience, but then perhaps experiencing some sort of call to be Maeve’s protector – possibly becoming somewhat of a paladin in approach.

Since he tied, he’s going to get to be more conflicted. He’ll strongly feel the pull of the Gospel and want to be committed to it, but he’ll also strongly feel the pull of the world, and the task he’s agreed to. It’ll be interesting to see how Neko roleplays it and what changes about his character. He’ll definitely still have the Easily Tempted foible, but I should think his response to giving in to said temptations will be stronger, different.

At one point Neko mentioned the idea of burning his motivation (PDQ# page 8), which would have been an interesting way to win the challenge, but I pointed out that doing so would mean that he alienates Sister Mary, and thus you would have to find a new safehouse for Maeve – something Neko was loathe to do.

First off, thanks to the GM for taking a moment out of his day to roll real dice with me over Skype. That was fun!

Azog rolled 2d6+2 for his flashy challenge:3+4+2=9. The preacher rolled 3d6 for his (rather than 2d+some fixed forte). His total was 12. Azog burned his only style die to reroll the 3, result 6. New total 6+4+2=12, tying the preacher. GM ruled that Azog has a conversion experience, but does not quit the party.

Well, they have a weight-room downstairs. I imagine that Jamison could teach you a few things about throwing blows.

As for Maeve’s kids, yeah, we need to put in some work. But that’s tricky. Does Boots know she got raided on? If so, how will she explain how she got out? Will he take action against her, or her kids? Where are they? What failsafes does he have in place?

I can’t imagine he’s waiting for people to raid him for her kids. They’re just leverage, so I don’t think they’ll be more guarded than we can get around. But, remember,we’re out of here before 2pm, so…

What’s home base?

Maybe Ruby’s? We’ve armed the Dinge crews, and they owe us. Ruby is poor, so a few spiffs to her joint should speed things our way. Further, the top floors are mostly empty space.

Well the telecommunications part is feasible. A cut wristband could send an ethertext to the DocWagon. We haven’t established that etherphones have GPS, but etherbeacons seem possible.

What we haven’t explored is the state of the medical profession. In our 1926 it was barely off the ground. Anesthesia and antiseptics were new, and hospitals in the US were pretty deplorable. Could be different here, of course, especially if clockwork enhancements are possible.

Well, nobody has written a wiki article on Doc Wagons, so I’m assuming they don’t exist. :)

Besides, Doc Wagons are primarily a function of technology, so it’d be a bit of a job to re-work them to fit this universe. However, if you want to try your hand at it, feel free. Then you’ve got to figure out how to hail one, seeing as nobody has a Doc Wagon subscription at this point.

OK, so you know how Trask has a rep for being bad mojo for any crook? Agent Carlyle makes him look like cupcakes. People only usually know about him via rumor, but he’s reputed to be the guy responsible for collaring Bugs Moran a while back. He got the job Jamison would have had if he’d gone into the Treasury department.

Also, I should add a directive comment. Ethan will already be familiar with this, having played in a game I GMed way back in the day. There will be no on-camera “extra-curricular activities”.

With regards to men and women, think of this game in the same light as a 1940s movie. You can have all the romance you want, and if your character would act the cad, then he may do so – but the audience need not know any of the details, and it should be left to the audience to draw that conclusion. So do not head down that path. Frosty?

That’ll be a recent development, and it’ll be contested, too. The First Nations, for instance, probably take umbrage with the idea that the USA owns the Ether.

Now, Germany is in no place to contest said rights, so they’re not going to beef over it. And the USA is occupying most of France. But there are still other world powers to be spoken with. Probably better to just understand that the USA controls the ether in the same way that the World Series Championship is only played between teams from the USA.

I should also clarify, in response to a comment LiaoFan made via Skype – The United States, prior to beginning to breed Orks, had lost half of its physical territory to the First Nations, had lost its largest warm-water port (New Orleans) to the undead, and had nearly lost its Atlantic Shipping as well.

Couple the realization that we’re going to have a small military with a few key Church of Starry Wisdom guys high up in politics, and suddenly the argument for breeding yourself an Ork army doesn’t look so bad.

I’ve updated the historical timeline up through the end of WWI. It’s some pretty bad stuff. Not a lot of the Ork Factory stuff will be known to the population, but news reports in 1923 would have definitely painted a clear picture of half a million Ork-Stemwinders appearing, seemingly, out of nowhere.

Additionally, the United States military still garrisons Fortress France at this time.

OK, between the two of you, you’re able to find some suitcases that are high enough quality so as not to draw undue attention, but cheap enough that you don’t put a major dent in your warchest. Let’s say you spend $20. For it you get 3 appropriately sized suitcases, and a new hat for Jamison. Oh, and the suitcases are already full!

OK, I’m just about ready to roll, but we’ve got a problem and I need everyone to weigh in:

LiaoFan wants you guys to stop and get some suitcases before going to The Ambassador East – primarily to smuggle the heaters. You’re currently 4 blocks, or so, from the Salvation Army, so you could go there, or you could go to a random pawn shop, or you could go to a proper suitcase shoppe.

Which one shall it be? I’m guessing everyone wants to get to the Scene at The Ambassador East, but if you go to the Salvation Army, we’re going to need to have a Scene there. If you go to a Pawn Shop or Luggage Shoppe, we can probably get by without having a Scene for it and we can ffwd to The Ambassador East.

However: If you go to a Pawn Shop, you’re not as likely to get good luggage which will help you to blend in as effete rich people. If you go to a proper Luggage Shoppe, you run the risk of Jamison getting recognized.

You guys decide which route you want to take. If you go Pawn Shop or Luggage Shoppe, I’m going to require a roll of some kind (revealed after you decide) to avoid having to have a Scene in either location. Provided you succeed, we’ll cut to the Ambassador.

Bear in mind, Ethan has created the character and established what sort of character she is, so you guys don’t need to spend style dice to give her fortes, I’ll do that behind the curtain. You only need to spend style dice on that stuff if there’s something in specific you want to make sure she has, etc.

More likely than not, whenever you create an NPC with style dice, but without paying for specific fortes, I’ll just use a very generic Forte with a very broad penumbra at Average ability. (though, you never know, I might go higher, and add other fortes if it suits my purpose) For example, in the case of Esther, I could just give her the forte: Witch (+2)

OK, had a phone conversation with the GM, who is celebrating a late Nativity. He shares with me that in our setting Orks are the “cockroaches” of metahumanity, and now I’m sharing it with you.

He is cool with this neighborhood block being Orthodox Jewish, but the Warrens are packed with Orks of other sorts as well. I doubt our characters will stay long enough to find out, if they can help it!

Spending one Style Die allows the Player to create a named NPC who will be significant in some fashion.

Spend one additional Style Die per forte or technique you wish to grant the NPC.

Man, wouldn’t it be grand if someone had time to type up the entire PDQ# ruleset in a cross-referenced wiki format! That’d make life so easy for all of us, and would probably be worth 10 style dice at a minimum. ;)

I checked the rules and you (or other players) can add fortes after creation, or bone up existing fortes by spending dice.

I’ve been spelling it “ork.” I think there might be a disagreement between Tolkien and TSR on spelling. I notice that Tolkien’s idiosyncratic “dwarves” has replaced dwarfs even in such august publications as The Economist.

I like the staff. She can keep it in her broom closet when she’s doing other things.

I’m bolding key words so I can skim and find them in the thread later. And sometimes I go over-long, so other players can skim what I write.

Additionally, if you have a technique that can be used with the Forte, you can use it to either add a +1 or reroll a die.

If you look on your character under the Characters tab, there will be a link to the PDQ Master Chart, which will show you (on the right hand side) the kinds of difficulties which correlate to your results.

You forgot to mention that if he’s unhappy with the result, he can “spend” a style die to reroll one die. (You don’t have to reroll both, so 6+1 is better than 3+4, since the first gives you a better chance of improvement). Also, higher is better, unlike GURPS.

OK, so in this game system, almost everything is simply 2d6 plus the relevant bonus. Generally speaking it’s up to you to justify the use of a specific Forte (in this case Law Enforcment) through roleplay. Then you just roll 2d6 and add your bonus to it. Let me know what the roll was.

In this case, there won’t be an immediate result, only that I’ll know how thoroughly you set up the scene, so as to know how to gauge the response of anyone who investigates it (by now you would probably assume it’d be Trask).

So just post 2d6+bonus, using Law Enforcement to determine your bonus.

If we interrogate him, I might not be able to eliminate him afterwards, and if he lives, he’ll almost certainly be interrogated by Boots. I can’t believe Boots would let him live if he tied Boots’ hands. Also, if we let him live, the only reason would be because he could tie Boots to the scene, which he could just as easily do as a corpse.

On the other hind, it might do well to have the PD pick him up. Boots’ll still want to eliminate him, but he won’t be able to do it without maneuvering. Perhaps we should call the cops, and set off the dynamite? At least that way, it’ll be less likely that Boots can ask a bunch of questions before trying to kill him. Who knows? Maybe Jimmy’ll get to flee!

You’ll find a crate of 6 Tommys and another crate of 1911s, as well as plenty of .45ACP to go around. One small crate of Dynamite, a crate of 5 Pump-action shotguns, as well as a crate of buckshot shells. Plenty of liquor as well, beer, etc. I’ts a pretty sweet load for you guys, definitely a smuggler’s trove.

Oh, and there’s one crate that has three clockwork weapons. Mugsy will recognize them from the War, they take a power source and he remembers them being referred to as a “Tesla”. Mugsy will remember that they’re really powerful, but finnicky in wet weather.

Addendum to the previous: Allistaire is not being pushy with his knowledge, but your characters would both notice that he constantly behaves in a manner that reinforces the idea that he is in control here, not you. It’s obvious to you that he is used to that position, and believes it to be at least somewhat true at this point.

Just by way of clarification, whatever names you would or would not have given Allistaire are somewhat irrelevant, as you definitely used each other’s names during and just after the fight scene. Allistaire is cogent and competent enough to have hung on to those names.

If your characters had any conversation with him between the Scenes, he would have been deliberate in their use when it seemed appropriate. Azog is probably used to being recognized, my guess is that Mugsy is a little perturbed by it…

The rest of the Metas are various people who “crossed the line” with Big Boots. Some of them are people who owed and couldn’t pay up, others are people who made life difficult for him in one way or another. Allistaire hasn’t bothered to ask most of them their stories, and of the ones alive, he recognizes none of them. For their parts, they’re not talkative – still enthralled by the Mind Control spell.

There were 2 ghouls left, not counting the almost dead one rolling around on the deck. Azog pounced on one, Mugsy clubbed the other. We rolled dice for that, and I posted dice results, but am leaving it to you guys to narrate how those results look. Neko posted said narration for Azog, I’m just waiting for SFTG to post the cinematic of him clubbing a ghoul to death for 12 wound ranks, then Neko jas stated that he wants to throw the ghoul he’s fighting overboard.

Ethan raises a good question – what are the rules for foes disengaging from a melee in the midst of a melee? I was operating under the assumption that I could pull the extra ghouls out on account of the fact that there’s still one ghoul tying up Azog.

Meanwhile, Mugsy wants to bypass the ghoul attacking him to go protect the meta-sheep. But he doesn’t have anyone else in melee with him on his side to keep said ghoul occupied.

Here’s a suggested solution:

Azog can choose not to defend himself from the Ghoul attacking him in exchange for attacking one of the other two ghouls – thereby keeping them from getting to their destination. If he succeeds in his attack on either one, that Ghoul will be stuck in the melee with him.

Similarly, Mugsy can disengage from the Ghoul attacking him by choosing not to defend against it.

I’m not sure how else to ajudicate it, so if you guys have other ideas, throw them out there!

Doing some formatting on the Map. Every Red marker should be a place that indicate’s a PC’s “place”, whereas the light blue should represent neutral locations where things have taken or might take place. The darker blue represent speakeasies that you guys are collectively aware of.

Is there any problem with Elf Magicians being more potent than other kinds? I guess not. Yeah, if we’re voting I approve. Let’s get some new players in and see if they manage to abuse things. This whole game is nothing but a giant beta test, right?

That’s pretty much the bread and butter of PDQ#, if you’ve got a way to justify your fortes overlapping, you can bring them to bear to your advantage. So in that way, having more fortes is an advantage, along with the hit points.

I have a Magic forte and cast a spell. But I’m coming up short, so I use my Nautical forte and cast a water spell. Just threw that together, but do you catch me? I mean, having more fortes is useful because they cover more situations. If they also overlap a lot, you get some of the benefits of having higher ranks in a forte.

I definitely don’t want to limit any Meta in how many ranks they can take…

On the one hand, anyone with a Machine Gun is pretty deadly – which is fairly accurate, so a 2 isn’t that much more. If they’ve got a +2 to Weapons and Elf +2, then they get 2d64 for a flashy challenge.

If they spend the extra to have Elf +4 or Weapons +4, as you’ve already pointed out, they lose out on a lot of “hit points”….

I suppose that someone could build a character that is nothing but a really excellent Elf and Machine Gunner and be really powerful at that one thing…..but then, anyone else could do that with any other forte.

I THINK that it plays out pretty similarly to an Ork with the Specialty: Swordfighting and the Gear: Battleaxe….wherein the Battleaxe would augment the Swordfighting forte and then his Ork bonus would add damage.

It was a pretty haphazard piece of work, that’s true. I’ll read tonight after sundown.

In-game: Azog knows he was very lucky to hit that first ghoul and hopes Mugsy will bring his gun to bear. He’s a natural gambler, and knows that 2d6+2 is much, much better than 2d6-2, even if he’s never heard the term “standard error of the mean.”

If Mugsy runs out of bullets and there are still ghouls coming, he’ll hand over his Thompson and defend Mugsy hand-to-hand.

Re: Neko’s Muppet Comment – A lot of delicious irony there, because last night SFTG PMed me on Facebook to let me know that he was really frustrated with the “dungeon crawl” and would really like for us to get back to the plot. I think I probably irritated him a bit with my nonchallance in reply. :P

He did bring up a good point that merits a clarification by me:

Play by Post RPing is already slow enough just because it’s PBP.

In tabletop RPGs there are often “random encounters” designed to give extra texture to the world and to break up the plot with opportunities for the Players to kill stuff.

In PBP, unnecessary random encounters only serve to bog the game down. And in PDQ#, you don’t get XP for killing stuff, you get XP whenever you fail at something. So there’s no need whatsoever for random encounters.

Also, keep in mind that there is not just one plot going on here. Yes, Mugsy’s mission to get even with O’Hanlon is the most overt plotline going on – primarily because it was his character’s impetus that brought this trio together – but there is also Azog’s quest for redemption and love, and Lovecraft’s search for deeper/darker/more powerful knowledge….those three at the very least.

To put a finer point on it, when you stood in the room and decided to take the tunnel instead of crossing the landing and going up the ladder, it was not needless wandering – it was essentially a question of which plot point you would next advance. Again with the decision of whether or not to stay in the depths, or to find a tunnel up and out. I had substantive plot points prepared for either eventuality.

So I just want you to be aware, there may be some journey between points from time to time (and I will expedite that as much as I can), but I also won’t lead you into needless random encounters.

I’m with Edward on this one. If you’re going to introduce a new character you need to send me a PM to let me know what you’re up to, then pay the style dice, then introduce him in a clear way that lets everyone know a new NPC is in play, and that it’s not just Azog getting overly excited about Lovecraft’s spellcasting…

This is a very short term summoning. Lovecraft expended his magical power to allow Fergus to exist in the Human realm of existence for a short period of time, but did not actually perform any rituals. So it’ll be somewhat similar to a summoning in DnD that has a duration measured in rounds. In this case, maybe a few minutes, max.

This is the Awakened World. While Lovecraft may be one of the few to access a Byhakee in particular, summoning as a concept is not uncommon. Consider the Daemon in HPL’s phone, for instance. So there is probably an element of magical protection and even insurance already in effect.

Fergus is not going to bring down the entire structure. By GM Fiat, this Byhakee is about the size of a horse. I’m not sure if that’s fitting with Lovecraftian lore, but that is the case in this instance. Now, he is a very powerful creature indeed, and a master of bad-assery, but due to his stature and the limited time he has on this plane, the most he will accomplish is a lot of chunky salsa.

Summoning void beasts is the equivalent of a nuclear attack. If Boots has a mage on hand to banish Fergus quickly, he may order a reprisal against a rival boss, believing this to be a “hit.” If he doesn’t, Fergus will probably bring down the whole structure before departing of his own accord or being banished on the Mayor’s authority, or the President’s.

And if Boots survives and discovers who’s responsible, no place in Chicago will be safe for our trio. It’s on!

Right now I’m letting you guys drive the plot. Our cast includes one character who began the game on a mission (Mugsy), and who has encountered our other two players specifically within the context of that mission. Azog has joined up out of a sense of do-goodery, encouraged a bit by Schmitty, and Lovecraft has joined after some encouragement from Azog.

The result is that the plot is currently being driven by the players. I’m not just going to hand you a piece of paper in-game that says “Go here, do this.” It’s a roleplaying game. Roleplay your characters.

Ethan, your character wants to find out what’s up with The Labrador and to get revenge on O’Hanlon, use your character to get the other two to help you do this.

Neko, your character wants to do good and impress a certain Salvation Army Lass. Mugsy has given you an opportunity, as well as an opportunity to do some digging into why O’Hanlon wants your butt in a sling. Use your character to make this happen.

Edward, your character got sucked into this more out happenstance than by any personal mission. However, Lovecraft’s ability and talent has been called into question, and he needs a new source of income, it appears. Use your character to demonstrate that he does in fact kick arcane ass, and find a way to manipulate Mugsy’s situation to Lovecraft’s benefit – both financial and arcane. If there’s a mage about, there’s probably arcane artifacts to be purloined.

In other words, guys, look to your character’s motivation. It will steer you.

OK kids, I’ve updated all of your Character Sheets to add a chart for tracking damage. You’ll notice it’s basically just a chart that illustrates your Fortes. As you take Wound Ranks or Failure Ranks, go in and edit your Character Sheet to replace the “X” with either “W” or “F”, that way you can track what you get back automatically, and what you have to heal back.

I’m planning on us handling pistols as Flashy Challenges in most situations, due to the fact that there’s not nearly as much parry/riposte in shootouts. If you’re opposed to this, I’m more than happy to run it as a proper Duel.

Is the first description essentially what we’ve been doing anyway? That seemed fine to me. A few days ago I added some fluff to make duels of mages vs. non-mages seem more plausible.

The second system might make sense for a magic-using “boss” character. I’m fine with it so long as you handle it. I think we three players are all PDQ novices and calculating 3d6’s with modifiers is plenty for my taste.

You didn’t ask, but I like the lethality of Thompsons and BARs. But two of our characters are pistol-users. Could those be handled as ordinary duels? Defense could just mean ducking behind cover and suppression fire.

I’m working on some plot and game mechanics details today. The biggest thing you’ll want to know is that to each NPC I’m adding a section detailing what firsthand/other knowledge each PC has of each NPC. Please use this to guide further conversations.

For the sake of not having to re-do everything in the current Phillies’ diner thread, just assume that Mugsy made some other comment than “he sent her?” as he would have no knowledge of her. (this is important to my plot, sorry Ethan, for not telling you in advance who you do and don’t know).

Chicago’s a big place, in order for you guys to solve your mysteries, you’re often going to put your heads together and benefit from your diverse experience.

The real thing is how to handle the lethality of firearms. Consensus in oyher PDQ resources is that you treat a weapon as a temporary and expendable forte. My plan has been to use that method, but only add the forte’s bonus if you’ve already achieved success.

So if I’ve got a guy fighting with MOBSTER (Good 2) and a Thompson rated at +6, he just rolls 2d62 to shoot you. But if he succeeds in hitting you, he adds the +6 to damage.

Also, Phantom Diner is a real thing! Or rather, people really have the experience I described. Usually the story ends with, “And when we went back there was nothing but a vacant lot long overgrown with weeds.” Nowadays with GPS on phones, I suspect we’ll stop having this experience. The closest I’ve ever come to it is to find a place closed for business and boarded up a scant 8 hours later, but that was just bad luck, not magic.

Well, since it’s a Flashy Challenge, it’s 2d6. Normally you won’t have the benefit of knowing what I roll when you decide your actions. However, if you’d like to just hurl yourself out of the window and onto the ground below, simply consider it a challenge and look at the PDQ Master Chart I’d say it probably counts as a Complex/Challenging Task to throw yourself out of the train. Take it up to Hard for Untrained Person if you want to stay in contact with the train and climb up top.

OK, this is a good point of clarification: Duels last multiple turns, unless you do something to change that. If Rose weren’t present and Azog wanted to leap out the window, that’d just be a challenge, and we’d let Neko ajudicate that himself. However, he’s in the middle of a fight. So rather than posting the conclusion of his actions, he needs to post his intent.

Throwing his coat over the girl’s head as a distraction will constitute a flashy challenge rather than a duel. You can see in PDQ p25 in the sidebar there’s an explanation for an Impasse. That’s basically what Azog is playing for here. Again, for the sake of seeing how this all works out, I’ll post the crunchy stuff here in comments instead of via message. Azog is attempting to throw a coat over Rose, but Rose is tempting to block the coat. She’ll use her Forte of Gangster’s Moll (+4) to fend off the coat. Rolling 10 on the dice for a total of 14. So Azog needs to beat a 14 to successfully use his ploy of swathing her head in coatness. If he succeeds in that roll, then he can flee the duel as he has described. If he does not succeed in that roll, he’ll take a failure rank and not be able to leave the car.

OK, since we’re just getting started with this, and since we’re about to have our first duel, I thought I’d pull back the curtain a bit and show how we’re going to walk through it.

First, let me say that it completely caught me by surprise – well done Neko. And totally in character. Kudos.

Now then, when we handle a duel or a challenge, you’re going to be rolling your own dice. There’s as much fun to storytelling in failure as success, so I’m trusting you to be honorable. If it’s just a challenge (your character trying to use his abilities in his environment) I will trust you to determine the difficulty and roleplay through your success or failure – just to keep the game from bogging down.

In a Duel, you’re going to need to send me a private message so we can work out the deets before you post the outcomes.

In a duel – each party gets 3d6 to apportion to attack and defense, and will add his appropriate Forte bonus to the mix. In this case, Azog is using Hand Fighting (Good +2). He’s also definitely using his Technique of Surprise Attack. This grants him either a +1 or a reroll of one die, his choice.

Thus far, Neko has PMed me to tell me that he’s going full attack (3d6), but not how he plans to spend his Technique. He also PMed me that he rolled a 5,6,1 – so normally he’d use his Technique for a reroll of the 1, since the benefit could be pretty big. For the sake of illustration, I’ll do that now: re-roll is a 6.

Meanwhile, Rose will be countering with her Ethermancy (Expert 4). Given that she’s taken by surprise, she’ll spend it all on defense. She rolls a 1,6,2 which grants her a total of 13 (16+2+4). She’ll use her Technique: Restraint to reroll the 1 and gets a 3. New total of 15.

Azog , however, rolled a 19 (5+6+5+2) on attack, so he’ll succeed and give her 4 Wound Ranks.

Neko should now post in the thread, describing what his success looks like. After that will be the Volte-face which pits Rose’s base +4 against Azog’s base +2 (seeing as Azog kept no dice for defense, and Rose kept no dice for attack.) However, Rose will employ her Technique of Mental Anguish to add one point to her roll: The total sum will be that Rose inflicts 3 Wound Ranks on Azog.

Since there’s nothing left to determine the outcome of that round of Combat, we’ll pause here and let Neko post, roleplaying the outcome of his attack. But he needs to leave the door open for me to roleplay Rose’s attack. Or, since we’ve already determined the outcome, I’m fine with him roleplaying that part too – as the tingling down his arm suddenly appears to burst into flame in his mind – charring his flesh and withering the arm (not for real, yo – it’s a phantasm, but it hurts all the same).

Neko will then need to decide where to apply the wound ranks. He can downgrade three separate fortes, or just dump the damage all into one. It’s his choice which, but it’s generally advisable not to dump wound ranks into your combat fortes during combat.

Additionally, since Neko is now taking Azog’s first wound ranks in this combat, he’ll need to come up with a Plot hook that relates to that forte, then post it in the Plot Hooks wiki.

OK, so when you take wounds, the way you track it is by reducing the levels of your fortes until you get to -1. So if you take 1 wound rank, and you’re an Average (+0) Schmuck, you first downgrade to being a Poor (-2) Schmuck. THEN, if this is the first time you’ve taken a wound rank in this Scene, you need to create a plot hook. The plot hook needs to have SOMETHING to do with you being a Schmuck – but it’s sort of an opportunity for you to stir the pot off-camera. Maybe because you’re a Schmuck you forgot your anniversary and your wife went on a rampage at the shopping mall. Voila – Plot Hook.

Then it’s my job as the GM to activate Plot Hooks (at which point you get a Style Die) when I feel that it helps the game.

I was thinking it would be interesting to have the group be employed by an agency who is not the law and not the mob. Almost like Ghost Busters or a detective agency. Something like corporate muscle but for the department of the occult or the rail road (or airship company). We’ve been watching a lot of the A-Team on hulu recently, so we could do something along that route as well.